Hormonal, cardiovascular, and subjective responses to acute stress in smokers.
BACKGROUND
There are complex relationships between stress and smoking; smoking may reduce the emotional discomfort of stress, yet nicotine activates stress systems and may alter responses to acute stress. It is important to understand how smoking affects physiological and psychological outcomes after stress and how these may interact to motivate smoking.


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to examine the magnitude and time course of hormonal, cardiovascular, and psychological responses to acute psychosocial stress in smokers and non-smokers to investigate whether responses to acute stress are altered in smokers.


METHODS
Healthy male non-smokers (n = 20) and smokers (n = 15) participated in two experimental sessions involving a standardized public speaking stress procedure and a control non-stressful task. The outcome measures included self-reported mood, cardiovascular measures (heart rate and blood pressure), and plasma hormone levels (noradrenaline, cortisol, progesterone, and allopregnanolone).


RESULTS
Smokers exhibited blunted increases in cortisol after the Trier Social Stress Test, and they reported greater and more prolonged subjective agitation than non-smokers. Stress-induced changes in progesterone were similar between smokers and non-smokers, although responses overall were smaller among smokers. Stress did not significantly alter levels of allopregnanolone, but smokers exhibited lower plasma concentrations of this neurosteroid.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that smoking dampens hormonal responses to stress and prolongs subjective discomfort. Dysregulated stress responses may represent a breakdown in the body's ability to cope efficiently and effectively with stress and may contribute to smokers' susceptibility to acute stress, especially during abstinence.
Childs
Emma
E
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience, The University of Chicago, 5841 S. Maryland Ave., MC 3077, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA. echilds@uchicago.edu
de Wit
Harriet
H
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001794:Blood Pressure; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006339:Heart Rate; D006728:Hormones / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000097:blood; D011280:Pregnanolone / Q000097:blood; D011374:Progesterone / Q000097:blood; D012907:Smoking / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D013060:Speech; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology; D013997:Time Factors; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
D015415:Biomarkers; D006728:Hormones; D011374:Progesterone; D011280:Pregnanolone; D006854:Hydrocortisone; D009638:Norepinephrine